Google Drive Offers 5 GB of Free Storage in the Cloud

Have you ever wanted to store your important files online? If so, you may have used a service like Dropbox, which creates a folder on your own hard drive and automatically syncs it with the Cloud, thereby giving you a folder which is always, automatically synced. Well it wasn’t too long before Google would make the jump into giving you a drive to store your files — as if they don’t already have a lock on your email and search. Google Drive is here.

Google Drive is a client that you download to your PC, Mac or Android (no iPad yet, but it’s coming), and it will automatically create your Google Drive and sync it with the Google Cloud. The service comes with 5 Gigabytes for free, and that can be upgraded to 100 Gb for $5 a month. That’s pretty good when we see that Dropbox comes with 2Gb free and costs $20/month for $100 Gb. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dropbox acts very soon to reduce their prices.

The app doesn’t just store your files — it automatically syncs with Google Docs. If you have a spreadsheet you’re working on in your Google Drive and double click it, a web browser with Google Docs will automatically open and you’ll be able to easily edit the file and have it synced. If the file is in a Microsoft Office format, though, you’ll only be able to edit the file until you convert it to Google’s formats.

The social integration at this point is minimal, but Google promises that you’ll soon be able to easily include photos from your Google Drive in Google+ posts and your Gmail accounts. We’ll be watching, and for now check out the video highlighting the launch.